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UNITY WITH DIVERSITY IN THE 



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PREACHED BEFORE THE 



COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 

JUNK 25, 1871, 
By JAMES McCOSH, D.B., LL.D. 

PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE. 



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$ PRINCETON : 

STELLE * SMITH, PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS. 
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Princeton College, 29 June, 1871. 
Rev. JAMES McCOSH, D.D., LL.D., 
Dear Sir :— 
The undersigned, in behalf of the Class of '71, wishing to express our 
appreciation of your Baccalaureate Discourse delivered last Sabbath, would 
respectfully request a copy of the same for publication. 
Respectfully, &c., 

R. RANDALL HOES, 
JOHN G. WEIR, 
OLIVER A. KERR, 

Committee. 



Princeton, Sept., 187 i. 
Gentlemen :— 

I have great pleasure in complying with your request, believing that the 
printed discourse may be an interesting memorial of your College life, and your 
intercourse with 

Yours, &c, 

TAMES McCOSH. 



t 



SERMON. 



"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are 
differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities 
of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." — I. Cor. 
XII., 4-6. 

" And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of 
the Lamb."— Rev. XV., 3. 

" Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." But 
while Jehovah is, and must be, one, there are indications 
from the beginning of there being distinctions in the divine 
nature : in the Old Testament he is called Elohim, plural 
noun joined to singular verb; and in the New Testament 
he is spoken of as Father, Son and Holy Ghost, — so that 
God never dwelt in loneliness, but ever in the atmosphere, 
ever in the warmth of love, and was thus ever in a position 
to exercise his highest perfection. Again, the moral law, 
the noblest enbodiment and expression of the divine nature, 
is also one, summed up like the divine character in love; 
but having a diversity of applications, to the agent himself, 
to the creatures and the Creator, that one law requiring us 
to live soberly, righteously and godly. The profoundest 
investigations of philosophers and artists have shown that 
beauty, so far as its delicate form can be caught by the 
subtlety of the human intellect, embraces unity with variety: 
as it has been expressed, the unity where it is found being 



beautiful in proportion to the variety, and the variety where 
it exists in proportion to the unity. I hope to show in this 
discourse that in the Works of God and in the Word 
of God viewed separately, and in the Works and Word 
of God in combination, there is sameness with difference, 
after the model of the divine nature, and in correspond- 
ence with the good and the lovely. In other words in the 
the true, as well as in the good and beautiful, as in God him- 
self, there is oneness with diversity constituting a universal 
harmony. 

I. There is Unity with Variety in the Works of God. 

We see this in the Matter of the Universe. That Matter is 
one and the same in all time and in all space. As far back 
as history goes, as geology goes, we discover the same natu- 
ral agents in the world as we do now, in fire and water, in 
sea and land, in rivers and mountains. Chemistry tells 
us that provisionally the elementary substances are a little 
above sixty, and now we know that they are found in the 
heavenly bodies. Of late years the spectroscope, which 
promises to reveal more wonders than the telescope or micro- 
scope has done, shows that the same bodies with which 
we are familiar on earth, are found in the sun and those 
distant stars : the rays of light are so affected as to show 
that they have come through sodium, or hydrogen, or some 
other substance found on our globe. But in what a diver- 
sity of modes do the bodies appear : in earth, water, air and 
fire — as the ancient Greeks classified them ; in solid, in fluid, 
in vapory, in elastic forms ; in floating ether, in buoyant 
air, in yielding liquid, in compact stones and metal ; in 
gems, crystals and stars ; in plants, satellites and suns ; in 
the trunks, branches, foliage, flowers and fruit of plants: 
in the bones, the muscles, the blood, the nerves, the brain, 
the senses of animals ; and in that goodly house in which 
we dwell, and which is so " fearfully and wonderfully made." 



We see it in the Forces of the Universe. It is the grand 
discovery of the science of our day, that the sum of Force, 
actual and potential, in the universe is always one and the 
same. The will of man cannot add to it ; no human effort 
can diminish it. If you consume it in one form it appears in 
another. A large portion of it coining from the sun, is 
taken up by the plant, which is eaten by the animal, and be- 
comes in us the power which we feel in our frame as we 
breathe, and walk, and run, and labor. We may use it to 
serve our purposes of good or also of evil; but we can use 
it only by means of itself, we can evoke it in one form only 
by means of the same force in another form. And after 
we have used it, it continues the same in amount as it was 
before. After running it may be the round of the universe, 
the force may come back to the spot and take the form in 
which we first noticed it. Just as the vapors which the 
sun's heat exhales from the sea, rise into the atmosphere 
and .descend in rain on the earth, to form rills and rivers 
which flow back into the ocean ; so the forces which operate 
in the earth, in air and sea, in plant and animal, after run- 
ning their circuits, ever fall back into that great ocean of 
power, which is just one manifestation of divine power. 
But in what a diversity of modes does this force appear: 
in matter attracting matter, and holding atoms and worlds 
together; in elements combining according to their friend- 
ships and strifes — as Empedocles of old expressed it, accord- 
ing to their affinities as chemists now say ; driving our 
steam engines, heating our homes, quivering in the mag- 
netic needle, ridiug in the storms of earth and in the storms 
in the sun's atmosphere, blowing in the breeze, smiling in the 
sunshine, striking in the lightning, and living in every organ 
of the body. Like the ocean ever changing and yet never 
changing; ever the same and yet never at rest; moving in 
every molecule, every planet and every star ; imparting un- 
ceasing activity and yet securing an undisturbed stability. 



We see it in the orderly Arrangement of the Matter and 
Forces of the Universe. For the material of the world might 
have been what it is, and the forces of the world might 
have been what they are, and the result, not order but 
confusion, spreading misery and dismay instead of happi- 
ness and comfort. It is clear that He who created the ele- 
ments and their properties, has imparted to them such a 
disposition and distribution, that they fall into order each 
in its appropriate place, like the stones in a building, 
like soldiers arranged into companies every one with a 
duty to discharge. The world is built up, as was fabled 
of the walls of ancient Thebes, by some sort of music or 
harmonizing power. 

The issue is first beneficent laws such as the revolution 
of the seasons, of the times of budding and bearing seed 
by plants, and of the birth, youth and maturity of animals. 
Such laws as distinguished from the forces of the universe, 
are not simple, as many suppose, but highly complex ; the 
result of construction, quite as much as a house is or a 
watch is. What a number of agencies, for example, are 
involved in the periodical return of spring : there are the 
movements and the relative position of the earth and sun ; 
there are the laws of light and heat, and the constitution of 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The co-operation of 
these does not proceed from the mere rude matter of the 
world, nor from its blind forces, but from an arrangement 
made to accomplish an evidently intended end, the pre- 
valence of order in the form of a law, which is to be regard- 
ed as an expression of the will of God, and enabling the 
intelligent creatures to gather knowledge. Without such 
a system of general laws, man as at present constituted could 
not gather wisdom from experience, could not foresee coming 
events, could not avoid the threatened evil, or lay hold of 
the promised good. It is by there being a uniformity estab- 
lished whereby the future so far resembles the past, that we 



9 

are enabled to anticipate what is before us and lay our plans 
accordingly. 

But along with the system of general laws, there is an 
adaptation of law to law, and of every one thing to every 
other, so as to bring about individual events. Thus by a 
series of very complex arrangements among the matters 
and forces of the universe, we have a series of joints in the 
animal frame, and the joints differing according to their 
positions : a ball and socket joint for instance, turning all 
round at the shoulders, where it is a convenience, but not 
in the lingers, where it would be a weakness and an incum- 
brance. By these arrangements God can accomplish not 
only his general des'gns but his specific purposes. This it 
is which constitutes Providence: that npovocau which Socrates 
defended against an ignorant mob, that could not discover 
the one God amid the multiplicity of his purposes, and 
against the self conceited sophists, who were not able to 
distinguish between truth and error. This providence is a 
general one reaching over the whole ; but it does so because 
it is a particular providence providing for every being, and 
for all wants. So delicately constituted is this whole sys- 
tem, that it moves sympathetically with our position, our 
needs, our feelings. It is so ordered that "the very hairs 
of our head are all numbered," and " a sparrow cannot fall 
to the ground without him." At the close of life, or as he 
contemplates the scene from heaven, the good man will see 
that he has been led by a way far better than he could have 
chosen, and that throughout his steps " have been ordered 
by the Lord." 

They tell us that all this order with adaptation proceeds 
from the physical agents of the world. All true, but the 
wonder is to find mechanical forces working through ages, 
producing such wise, and beneficent, and harmonious re- 
sults. The forces of the universe are distributed into num- 
bered companies, which march in measured step to the sound 



10 

of music. Pythagoras declared that it is because men are 
dull of hearing, that they do not hear the music of the 
spheres. Certain it is, that it is is only because we have 
failed to train as we ought our intellectual organs, that we 
do not perceive a wider ranging harmony in the universe, 
than in the most skilfully arranged musical concert. 

We see it in our Mental Talents and Tastes. The mind is 
suited to the position in which it is placed in the world, and 
the world is adapted to the minds which are to observe and 
use it. There is order in the world, and man is so consti- 
tuted as to discover and admire it. There is reason in the 
works of God, and reason in man's mind to appreciate it. 
"If the laws of our reason," says Oersted, "did not exist in 
nature, we would vainl} T attempt to force them upon her; 
if the laws of nature did not exist in our reason, we should 
not be able to comprehend them." The forms which min- 
erals assume when they crystallize ; the elliptic orbits of the 
planets ; the hyperbolic curves of the comets ; the spiral 
conformations of the nebular groups of the heavens, of the 
appendages of plants around their axis, and of the whorls 
of the shells of molluscs; the conical shape of the fruit of 
pines and firs with the rhomboids on their surface, are all 
constructed according to mathematical laws which have 
their seat in the intelligence and can be evolved by pure 
thought. When we ascend to the higher manifestations 
of life, in particular, when we rise to the human form, 
we do not find the same rigid lines as in crystals, nor are 
the invariable curves of the nebulas and plants so observa- 
ble ; but I believe they are still there blended in innumer- 
able ways, so as to give an infinite sweep and variety to 
the graceful forms on which the eye ever delights to rest, 
and which the mind never wearies to contemplate, and the 
mind unconsciously follows now the one and now the other 
till it is lost in a perfect wilderness of beauty. 

There is a point here at which the laws of thought and 
the laws of things, at which physics and metaphysics meet 



11 

and become one. There is beauty in God's works and man 
lias a taste for it. Man's intellect formed after the image 
of God delights in unity with variety, and nature presents 
these every where : in starry sky and gilded cloud, in 
mountain and romantic glen, in field and river, in flower 
and forest. And above even beauty, as much higher as the 
sky is above the earth, we have a sublimity in the massive 
rock, in the rolling thunder, in the boundless ocean, in the 
star bespangled expanse of heaven, all fitted, all intended 
to call forth the idea of the infinite, which the mind of man 
is ever striving to lay hold of and yet cannot grasp. Man 
lias faculties of a high and varied order, and he has means 
of gratifying, cultivating and refining them in the study of 
the works of God ; and I may add in the study of the 
works, which man is able to fashion by his heaven endowed 
gifts, in music, in painting, in statuary, in architecture and 
most fully — in what is the noblest of the fine arts — in lite- 
rature, in which the highest wisdom as disclosed by phi- 
losophy, history, science — mental, social and physical — is 
embodied in the Avell proportioned expressions of prose, 
and the infinite modulations of poetry— lyric, didactic, tragic, 
comic and epic. All these are thrown open to us in un- 
grudging profusion, that we may form acquaintance with 
them, and converse with them, that we may drink in their 
spirit and be moulded after their example. Here we have 
a fund of wealth which can never be exhausted, things 
suited to all, things adapted to each, to every talent, every 
taste, and every pursuit and destination of life. It is clear 
that the intellect, and the sensibilities of our nature are 
adapted in every way to our position ; and that the same 
God made the world within and the world without. It is 
evident that the God who made the eye also made the light 
that falls on it ; and it is equally certain that He who made 
matter also made mind, and these in beautiful correspon- 



12 

deuce the one to the other, the one to be used, the other to 
use it, the one to be contemplated, the other to contemplate it. 

" From harmony, from heavenly harmony 
This universal frame began. 
From harmony to harmony, 

Through all the compass of the notes it ran. 
The diapason closing fall in man." 

II. There is Unity with Diversity in the Word of 
God. 

That word was written at very different times and by 
writers of very different characters, tastes, talents and tem- 
peraments. Some of the authors write in a clear and sim- 
ple, others in an ornate, a sharp, or apothegmatic. in a bold, 
or a sublime style. Some of the books have upon them the 
hoar of antiquity, and introduce us to the fathers of the 
race and the beginnings of the stream of history. Others 
are evidently composed when thought is matured and cul- 
ture has reached a high perfection. One preserves a valua- 
ble piece of history, another opens to our view the human 
heart in biography, a third enjoins practical precept, a fourth 
expounds doctrine in systematic order. One takes up his 
parable, another pours forth a song, a third utters a warn- 
ing, a fourth cheers the dark days of the people of God 
with the prospect of better times. The greatest of all the 
teachers touches the tenderest cords, and moves the lowest 
depths of the heart, by simple statement, by vivid illustra- 
tion, derived from the works of nature and the experience 
of human life, by truth which recommends itself intuitively, 
by sentiment issuing directly from a tender heart, and by 
pure precept descending from heaven to purify the earth. 
61 God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in 
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
last days spoken unto us by his Son." But in the midst 
of all this diversity there is unity from beginning to end. 
There is one stream, rising in a pure fountain in Eden ; be- 






13 

coming defiled in the terrible fall into the abyss of sin; 
often troubled and interrupted and having to burst through 
chasms ; now widening, and now narrowed, but flowing on 
towards the ocean of eternity. The events occur after a 
model ; the dispensations are after a pattern, the men are 
after a type who are looking towards an archetype,. first seen 
in the dim distance and then appearing in the fulness of 
time. It is one progressive march of prophecy through the 
ages, culminating ever and anon in a fulfillment. It is one 
creed in regard to God and Christ and man, in regard to 
this world and the world to come, and this underlying — like 
the deeper rocks of our earth — the whole history, the song, 
the dispensations and the precepts. 

The unity arises mainly from the circumstance thai there is 
one God inspiring the ivriters, and bringing them all to a con- 
sistency. Even as " the Lord our God is one Lord," so 
the Word which he hath inspired is also one. This is the 
grand central sun which binds, which illumines all the parts, 
securing a continuity in the history and a congruity in the 
doctrine and practical injunction. While " all scripture is 
given by inspiration of God," it is profitable for a variety 
of purposes "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness." 

It arises from the whole being a development of the one plan 
of redemption. We have seen that there is a universal har- 
mony in nature. But it is evident that somehow a discord- 
ant element has been introduced. The one of these is as 
clear and a§ certain as the other. If the one be a fact so is 
the other. Our business is as observers to notice both, as 
lovers of truth to receive both. Looking within w T e find 
natural conscience clearly indicating that man is alienated 
from God; he is afraid of God, he turns away from God. 
But not only is man not at peace with God, he is not at 
peace with himself. First there is an accusing conscience, 
and then there are lusts which war against each other and 



14 

war against the soul. Looking without we see feuds, and 
wars, and bloodshed ; we see disease, disappointment and 
death, scarcely less prevalent than health and happiness. 
All these things can ^e traced directly or indirectly to sin 
as their source. Now the Word of G( d reveals a way by 
which this discordance is removed, by a reconciler and a 
redemption paid by him. In its evolution the plan assumes 
various forms, the Patriarchal, the Jewish, the Christian, and 
there may be a new modification in the millennium. But 
it is substantially the same along the whole line. God ap- 
pears everywhere as a holy God, saving sinners through the 
sufferings of his Son. It is under this aspect that he is pre- 
sented every where throughout the scriptures. In the first 
promise to fallen man the seed of the woman is represented 
as having his heel bruised by the power of the serpent, 
which has its head crushed in the act. In the first worship 
in Adam's household there is the offering of a bleeding sacri- 
fice. In a later age, the first act of Noah landed on a new 
earth was the presenting of sacrifices unto the Lord. You 
might have followed the wandering path of the patriarchs 
by the altars which they built, and the smoke of the sacri- 
fices which they offered. Under the law almost all things 
were purified by blood. The grand object presented 
in the New Testament is a bleeding Saviour suspended 
on the cross. It is thus the same view that is presented 
under the Patriarchal, the Jewish and the Christian dispen- 
sations. Except in the degree of development there is no 
difference between God as revealed in Eden, as revealed in 
Sinai, and revealed on Calvary; between God as described 
in the Books of Moses, and God as described so many cen- 
turies later in the writings of Paul and of John. In the 
garden of Eden we have the lawgiver, and we have indica- 
tions of the Saviour as the seed of the woman. On Mount 
Sinai there is the same combination of awful justice and 
condescending mercy ; the same law written on stone, but 



15 

with a provision for offering sacrifices as an atonement 
for sin. In the mysterious transactions oir Calvary there 
is an awful forsaking and a fearful darkness emblematic of 
the righteousness and indignation of God, as well as a 
melting tenderness in the words of our Lord, breathing 
forgiveness, and telling of an opened paradise. The first 
book of scripture discloses to us a worshipper offering a 
lamb in sacrifice, and the last book shows a lamb as it had 
been slain in the midst of the throne of God ; " I beheld 
and lo, in the midst of the throne stood a lamb as it had 
been slain." In heaven they " sing the song of Moses the 
servant of God and of the Lamb." 

Again, it arises from the unity with variety in the experience 
of believers. In essential points the experience of all is alike, 
and has been so from the be^innino-. It is that of beings 
formed at first in the image of God, from which they have 
fallen, but now struggling with sin amid fears and hopes, 
defeats and triumphs, and aspiring after communion with 
God and conformity to his will. There is a remarkable cor- 
respondence in this respect between the state and feelings 
of the people of God in all ages. In particular we see and 
feel that there is a curious correspondence between their 
situation, and that of the children of Israel as ransomed 
from Egypt. It was evidently ordained at the constitution 
of the kingdom of Israel that these events should take 
place, not only as a means of training ancient Israel, but 
for the nurture and instruction of the people of God in 
every age, who sing on earth, and shall sing in heaven "the 
song of Moses the servant of God." Were the Israelites 
delivered from a degraded and cruel bondage ? So are we, 
but from a greater and more fearful slavery. Did the Lord 
raise up for his ancient people a deliverer in Moses ? For 
his people in these times he has provided a yet greater de- 
liverer, for " a greater than Moses is here." Did he conduct 
ancient Israel through a desert, supplying them with 



16 

all needful blessings, with manna to feed them, and water 
to quench their thirst, raising a pillar of cloud to guide 
them by day, and ever kindling this into a pillar of fire by 
night? He still leads, his people through the wilderness of 
this world, supplying their temporal and spiritual wants, 
giving them bread to eat of which the world knoweth not, 
and living water from the smitten rock which is Christ, and 
he will at last conduct to the rest which remaineth for the 
people of God. Being placed in circumstances so similar 
we feel as if every appeal addressed to them should also 
come home to us. Thus when the commandments are pre- 
faced with the declaration " I am the Lord thy God which 
have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 
of bondage,' 7 we feel as if the motive were one which 
should also operate upon us, and that we should obey all 
the commandments, because we have been redeemed by the 
blood of Christ. That Old Testament narrative is all true 
history, and yet it reads as if it were a parable, written by 
some man of God for our instruction, so adapted is it to our 
feelings and circumstances. 

We have a like experience in the Book of Psalms. The 
song of Moses is also the song of the sweet Psalmist. 
What mean these wrestlings so frequently and affectingly 
described, these conflicts with an enemy, these humiliations, 
these successes ? The christian has ever felt that these ex- 
periences come home to his case, and he sings the songs of 
Zion, giving a deeper meaning to them than even the author 
of them was conscious of. Coming to the New Testament 
we find One who was without sin, but who because he stood 
in the room of sinners was obliged to say, " my soul is ex- 
ceeding sorrowful even unto death," " my God, my God 
why hast thou forsaken me." We see that the song of 
Moses is also the song of the Lamb. The Apostle Paul 
describes as a universal characteristic of christian experience, 
" The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against 




17 

the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other," and 
lie had to exclaim, " wretched man that I am, who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death." Now wherever 
we have a faithful account of the feelings of the believer, 
we find his experience corresponding to that of Paul. Look 
at the confessions of Augustine, the letters and lives of the 
Reformers, and the diaries of later Christians, and we find 
all of them mourning over a remainder of sin, with which 
they are earnestly contending, and which they hope finally 
to conquer. It is extremely interesting, and instructive 
withal, to observe this unity of feeling, and to discover be- 
lievers separated from each other by so many ages, and liv- 
ing in such different states of society passing through very 
much the same experience. It is an evidence that our re- 
ligion is the same in all ages, the same grace of God acting 
on the same human nature. The people of every age, those 
who come from the north and the south, from the east and the 
west, will be able to join in the song of Moses and the 
Lamb. 

But while there is the same spirit there, are diversities 
of operation. Because the spirit works in a certain way 
in the breast of one believer, this is no reason why he should 
work in the same way in the heart of every other believer, 
or any other believer. He finds different individuals with 
different natural temperaments and beset by different sins 
and temptations, and he suits his manifestations to the dif- 
ference of their state and character. Let no christian then 
insist that the work of the spirit must be precisely the same 
in the heart of every other as in his own. Nor should any 
humble child of God permit himself to doubt of the reality 
of a work of grace in his own heart, merely because his ex- 
perience has not been the same with that of some others of 
whom he has read, with whom he has taken sweet counsel, or 
who has opened up his heart to him. Just as there is diver- 
sity in the w 7 orks of nature, in the color and size of the plants 



18 

and animals, that people the air, earth and ocean, just as 
there is a variety in the countenance and shape of the bodily 
frames of human beings, just as one star differeth from 
another; so christians, while all after one high model, are 
made to take different forms and hues of beauty on earth, 
and shall thus be transplanted to heaven, to adorn the gar- 
den of God and shine as stars, each with his own glory in 
the firmament above. As in heaven the foundations of the 
wall of the city are garnished with " all manner of precious 
stones," and the tree of life in the midst of the street 
bears "twelve manner of fruits," so the people of God will 
there as here have each his own characteristics, and the 
song which ascends will be a concert of diverse voices, each 
melodious, and each in its diversity joining with the others 
to make the harmony. Each in his own way will join in 
singing " the song of Moses the servant of God and of the 
Lamb." 

III. There is an accordance between the Works and 
Word of God and yet there is a difference. Both come 
from God and therefore reflect the character of God. But 
they exhibit it in somewhat different light. Nature teaches 
us by potent forces, by arrangements, by laws, and shows 
order and beneficence. The Word instructs by flexible 
language, by clear enunciations, by arguments, by appeals, 
by threatenings, by promises, and tells of a sin hating God 
who yet pardons iniquity. The works manifest his power 
and his wisdom. The Word displays more fully his holiness 
on the one hand and his mercy on the other. When Moses 
desired to behold the glory of God, the Lord passed by 
before him and proclaimed " The Lord, the Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in good- 
ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving ini- 
quity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means 
clear the guilty." 



19 

It must be acknowledged that there are times when 
science and scripture seem as if they contradicted each 
other, with no means of reconciling them. But it is only 
as one branch of science may seem to be inconsistent with 
another. There are times when astronomy seems to run 
counter to geology : geology requires very long ages to ex- 
plain its phenomena, to account for the successive strata and 
races of animals on the earth's surface, whereas astronomy 
seems to say that so long time has not elapsed since the 
earth was formed by the rotation of nebulous matter. 
Nobody thinks that there can be any absolute contradiction 
between the two sciences ; every one believes that sooner 
or later the seeming inconsistencies will be cleared up. I 
say the same of the apparent incongruities between Genesis 
and geology. Account for it as we may there is a general 
correspondence between the two, the record in stone and 
the record in scripture. There is an order with a pro- 
gression which is very much the same in both. In both 
there is light before the sun appears. In Genesis the fiat, 
" Let there be light and there was light" goes forth the 
first day, and the sun comes out the fourth day, in accord- 
ance with science, which tells us that the earth was thrown 
off a^es before the sun had become condensed into the cen- 
tre of the planetary system. In both the inanimate comes 
before the animate ; in both the plant is supposed to come 
before the animal ; and in both fishes and fowl before creep- 
ing things and cattle. In both we have as the last of the 
train, man, standing upright and facing the sky, made of 
the dust of the ground and yet filled with the inspiration of 
the Almighty. It is clear that there must be great truth in 
that opening chapter of Genesis which has anticipated 
geology by three thousand years. With such correspon- 
dences we may leave the apparent irreconcilabilities to be 
explained by future investigation. " He that believeth will 
not make haste." At times it is not easy to reconcile pro- 



20 

fane history with scripture; but ever and anon there cast 
up such things as the monuments of Egypt, the palaces of 
Nineveh, and the stone of Moab to tell us that the Old Tes- 
tament gives us a correct picture of the state of the nations 
in ancient times. We who dwell in a world " where day and 
night alternate," we who go everywhere accompanied with 
our own shadow, cannot expect to be delivered from the 
darkness, but we have enough of light to show the path 
which will lead us through the perplexities. 

I might dwell on the numerous analogies between na- 
ture and revelation. Both give the same expanded views 
of the greatness of God ; the one by showing his workman- 
ship, the other by its descriptions. "The heavens declare the 
glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. 
Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night show- 
eth knowledge." Both show that there is only one God; 
the works, which are bound in one concatenated system, 
and the Word when it declares that " the Lord our God is 
one Lord." But instead of launching forth on this wide 
but obvious and common place subject I must confine nn T - 
self to two points brought into prominence by recent sci- 
ence. 

One is the operation of development or evolution. We 
see it everywhere both in the natural and supernatural dis- 
pensations of God. " The sun ariseth and the sun goeth 
down, and hasteth to his place whence hearose." "The wind 
return eth again according to his circuits." " Unto the 
place from whence the rivers aiise they return again." 
But while all things go in their circuits, yet in doing so 
they leave their abiding results : the sun call eth forth vege- 
tation and giveth heat and light; the winds give breath to 
every living thing ; and the rivers leave their deposit which 
when raised up may become fertile land. We see it in the 
earth bringing forth grass, " the herb yielding seed and the 
fruit tree vieldino* fruit after his kind, whose seed is in it- 



21 

self." All this does not prove as some would aver, that 
there is nothing 1 but development. The extent of the pro- 
cess has not yet been settled ; but it is certain that it has 
limits. For there cannot be development without some 
previous material, without some seed out of which the 
thing developed has come, and the most advanced science 
cannot show whence or how the original matter and germ 
have come. And then development is a very complex 
operation in which there is a vast variety of agents known 
and unknown, and these evidently combined by a power 
above them to accomplish a purpose. As evolution from 
a germ according to a general law is a common process in 
nature, so we see a like operation in the kingdom of grace. 
The Jewish economy is developed out of the Patriarchal, 
the Christian out of the Jewish according to a law in the 
Divine Mind and by agencies appointed by Divine Wisdom; 
and the seed planted eighteen huudred years in the w 7 orld 
has become a wide spread tree ; all implying an original 
germ and a formative process, rising into higher and ever 
higher forms of spiritual life, and about to effloresce into a 
period, in which the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured on 
all flesh. 

Another point is, that experience, history and science 
all concur with the Word of God in the view 7 which the} T 
present of the state of things in which we are placed. 
The vain and frivolous may feel as if the Scriptures have 
drawn too dark a picture of our world, when they describe 
it as a scene of sin and suffering, with terrible conflicts 
within and without. But all who have had large experi- 
ence of human life will be ready to acknowledge that the 
account is a correct one. The faithful representation of 
human character is to many the most satisfactory evidence 
of the truthfulness of the Word of God. The young and 
inexperienced may imagine, that in that distant spot on the 
landscape on which the sun is shining, there must be a 



22 

paradise still lingering on our earth : but when they actu- 
ally go to it they find it to be very much like the other 
parts of the earth's surface. Often in sailing on the rough 
ocean have I imagined that away in the horizon there is an 
unbroken calm, but on the vessel reaching the spot it turn- 
ed out to be agitated and distracted like the place from 
which I surveyed it. History tells the same story. How 
much of it is occupied with the narrative of battles and this 
from the earliest to the latest times — in which we have had 
two terribly desolating wars. We boast of our splendid 
cities ; but in every one of them you will find sinks of iniqui- 
ty, with crime and misery festering and fermenting, and in- 
to which, are poured the filth engendered by the vices of 
the wealthy. And in our rural districts there are feuds 
and rivalries, bred of selfishness and passion, raging in 
scenes in which all may seem so calm and peaceful to the 
superficial observer. There are warring elements in every 
human bosom, and in every society composed of human 
beings. Any one seeking to remove the causes of discord 
will be sure to irritate and to meet w r ith determined oppo- 
sition, and He who has doue most to assuage the storm had 
to say " I am come to send fire on the earth." " Suppose ye 
that I am come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but 
rather division." The greatest men in our world have 
been martyrs who in order to pull down the evil have had 
themselves to perish. And is not the science of our day 
giving us the very same picture ? When we read the older 
treatises of natural theology, founded on scientific observa- 
tion, the impression is apt to be left that our world is all 
fertile and smiling landscape with no desert and no troub- 
led sea, is basking in the full sunshine of heaven with no 
darkness and no night. But of late years science has been 
obliged to speak of terrible conflicts. What mean these 
discoveries of worlds being formed out of warring elements ? 
What mean these " struggles for existence" of which 



23 

naturalists are forever speaking? It is clear that Buffering 
and death were on our earth since life appeared on it, and 
reigned " over them that had not sinned after the simili- 
tude of Adam's trangression." Does not science as well 
as Scripture shew that " the whole creation groaneth and 
travaileth in pain together until now?" The two are thus 
seen to be in curious correspondence; but they differ in 
this that while both speak of a troubled day the later and 
more comforting revelation of God assures us that " at 
evening time there shall be light." 



Gentlemen of the Graduating Class. You have been 
studying for years past at a College which aims at keeping 
together what the Creator has combined, while it makes 
provision for the diversity of tastes which the same All- 
Wise God has implanted in our natures. There is a dispo- 
sition in some of our American Colleges, and these claiming 
to be the most advanced, to allow too great a liberty — I 
call it a license — in study to those who are seeking the 
Bachelor's Degree. I do not object to a full freedom of 
study to every one ; this cannot be denied, should not be 
denied. But I am speaking of what our higher educational 
institutions should encourage ; and I hold that a College 
endowed by the friends of education should foster, not the 
common branches, which may be supplied by the State or 
left to be cared for on the principle of demand and supply, 
but the highest departments of studj r , and reward those 
who master them by granting a Degree, which for centu- 
ries past has had a meaning all over the civilized world. 
It is not for the benefit of education that the inducements 
to higher learning should be withdrawn, and that tempta- 
tions should be held out to a dissipation of study, or a one 
sided learning which tends to rear angular minds, which are 



24 

not only ignorant but affect to despise all that is beyond 
their own narrow circle. In this College we mean, not to 
fall in with, but to resist this tendency, and to insist on all 
who claim our Degree being grounded in certain funda- 
mental branches such as Languages, Literature, Science 
and Philosophy, which discipline the mind and open the 
way to all kinds of knowledge. In the present day many are 
allured to devote themselves exclusively to such branches 
as modern languages and certain departments of physical 
science in the idea that they are likely to be practically use- 
ful. Two evils follow. They neglect to master, when 
young, certain important branches, and find, when they have 
reached that age at which it is irksome to begin a new study, 
that they are without the key which opens the richer trea- 
sure-houses of knowledge. How often, for example, have 
young men to regret that they have given up Classics, when 
they find that in consequence the whole of ancient history, 
with its stirring incidents and exhibitions of human charac- 
ter, and of social manners and institutions, is placed be- 
yond their range of vision and contemplation. Another 
consequence follows. After all, they have acquired a con- 
tracted and not a liberal education, and are apt to come 
under the influence of a sectarian and bigoted, rather than 
a catholic spirit, and to fall into positive error on the one 
side or the other, especially in such all important subjects 
as philosophy and religion, by not being in a position to 
perceive that one truth is limited by another. I hope that 
the graduates of Princeton will exercise their influence to 
secure that in ages to come as in ages past, we shall believe 
in the trinity of literature, science and philosophy. 

But our minds are not formed originally alike, any more 
than our bodily frames are. All are so far alike that they 
are able to acquire the elements of the more essential 
branches, and if any feel that they have an aversion to any 
particular branch of high study, it is a sign that there is a 



25 

weakness in their constitution, and instead of yielding to it 
they should seek by the proper gymnastic to strengthen it, 
and give a robustness and a full rounded development to their 
whole frame. But it is wrong, it is vain to try to stretch 
all on the same Procrustes' bed. There is surely room in 
a four years' course for a diversity with the unity of study. 
We may allow advanced students who have mastered the 
elements of the fundamental studies to make a selection 
among other useful branches, to gratify their heaven in- 
planted tastes and prepare themselves for the professional 
pursuits before them. I admit that this power of choice 
may be abused. It is certain to be so by too young students 
who might avoid some of the most important branches, as 
being utterly ignorant of their utility and feeling the ini- 
tiatory steps to be irksome. Even advanced students may 
pervert it, especially the idle and lazy by selecting the studies 
supposed to be easiest, or in which the instructor lets off his 
pupils with the least amount of work. But this evil may 
be lessened by proper college regulations securing a unifor- 
mity of standard ; and with its few incidental disadvantages, 
the system which allows election within certain limits is to 
be preferred to one which excludes all new branches of 
knowledge, because there is not time to study them, or 
forces every one of them on all the students, who in seek- 
ing to acquire all the branches end in mastering none. In 
nature every tree, every animal, every branch, every 
leaf, every flower, every limb differs from every other, 
while all are after a type which gives a unity to the struc- 
ture. So it should be with the students trained at our Col- 
lege. Let them retain, let them cherish their distinctions, 
their individualities, their very peculiarities ; their taste for 
poetry, their taste for languages, their taste for physical 
science, their taste for mathematics, their taste for philosophy, 
while all are rooted and grounded in certain fundamental 
principles which. keep them from deviating into extremes — 



26 

save them in fact from becoming monsters — and fashion 
them all after the same high model of educated gentlemen. 

While we aim to have all trained in the useful branches 
of secular knowledge, bearing on the improvement of the in- 
tellect, the refinement of the taste, and the preparation for 
the anxious pursuits of life, we cannot forget in this College, 
that man is an immortal being. The students here are 
most of them separated from their parents and guardians ; 
and standing as we do in loco parentis, it is expected of us 
and it is our bounden duty, to provide religious instruction 
for them. Even as it is God who gives a unity to his works, 
so it is the fear and love of God that impart a unity to all 
our intellectual energies, and a consistency to the character 
and life. I conduct the Biblical Instruction by means of a 
lecture on Sabbath followed by a recitation on a week day 
on the part of each class. My course of instruction runs 
over four years. The first year I took up the four Gospels 
and the Life of our Lord; the second year the Book of 
Acts and the planting of the Christian Church ; this last 
year a simple statement and defence of Christian Doctrine, 
with an exposition of the Epistle to the Romans ; and next 
year I take up the Old Testament. My recitations. have 
enabled me once a week to meet face with face with every 
student in the College. At these meetings, beside becom- 
ing acquainted with the students, and I trust depositing 
some seeds of truth in their minds, I have been enabled by 
moral suasion to put an end, I trust forever, to some of the 
old evil practices of the College, and to crush in the bud 
some new evils as they threatened to break out. 

It is to be recorded to the credit of the Class now 
graduating that they have assisted the authorities in 
rooting out some of the low and vicious habits of the 
College. They early pledged themselves to discountenance 
the mean attacks on students at the dead of night, and the 
issuing of vile publications, and at a later date they bound 



27 

themselves to avoid and discourage intemperance. It will 
be written in the history of this College, and will go down 
to all future generations, that the Class of 1871 was the first 
to bind itself to stop these evils, and was the means of break- 
ing the descent from one year to another. 

The members of this Class have endeared themselves to 
me personally, as we met together from week to week now 
for nearly three academic years. I do not at this moment 
remember a single unpleasant incident in our intercourse 
with one another. You would have a right to charge me 
with a cold heart — and this infirmity I am not willing to 
confess — if I did not feel moved now in parting with you, 
and if I did not promise to look forward with deep and 
lively interest to the future career of the Class as a whole, and 
of the individual members. I feel that I w T ill ever rejoice 
when I hear of you prospering, 'and grieve when I learn 
of any evil befalling you. 

We send you forth from our walls furnished with a solid 
liberal education. Different lots we may conceive are be- 
fore you. You are to betake yourselves to different pro- 
fessions, walks and pursuits. Very diverse may be your 
destinations in life. The coldest heart cannot look on a 
company of young men, such as that now before me, with- 
out emotion. One would like to have a horoscope to fore- 
cast the future, and see therein where you are to be, and 
what you are to be doing, at some defined time in the future, 
say five or ten years hence. Some we might find still near 
us ; some prospering in the journey, some meeting with one 
disappointment after another ; a number in this world, some 
gone to the world beyond the grave. But wherever you 
are and wherever you go in this world, I trust to hear of 
you, in low position or in high, in sunshine or in storm, 
cultivating an academic spirit and diffusing an elevated taste 
around you ; cherishing a manly independence, and follow- 
ing the path of integrity and honor ; holding firmly by the 



28 

truth of God, feeling jour dependence on Him, and cling- 
ing to the hope of dwelling in his presence in heaven. 

It is doubtful whether after our separation a few days 
hence we will all meet again in this world. Whether we 
meet again on earth let us cherish the hope of all meeting 
— no wanderer lost — in heaven, there to sing the song of the 
redeemed. But let us inquire this day whether we are pre- 
pared to join in that song. " No man could learn that song 
but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were 
redeemed from the earth." The kingdom of heaven is a 
choir in which every one has to take his part, and the soul 
unprepared would feel itself to be a discordant note. The 
universe we have seen is a harmony, a harmony with God, 
a harmony in itself — the onlj T discordance arising from sin. 
But suppose that you are out of this harmony being still in 
your sins, that you are at war with God, and with war rag- 
ing in your souls. Put the supposition, that in this state 
you are taken to heaven. Would you feel that to be the 
place for you? Would not the holiness that shines there 
be as painful to look upon, as to gaze forever with unveiled 
eyes on the full radiance of the noonday sun ? Would not 
the brightness of the light only shew your blackness in 
darker and more hideous colors ? The happiness that reigns 
there would only make you the more to feel your own mis- 
ery. I believe that if you were to carry an unconverted 
sinner to heaven, he would flee out of it as of all places to 
him the most intolerable. 

The song is sung in heaven, but it is learned on earth. 
It is a new song, different from the old songs which you 
first learned, of earthly war, or love, or fame ; it is a song 
coming from a soul which has fought with sin and over- 
come it, and filled with affection to Him who has enabled 
it to gain the victory. " He hath put a new song in my 
mouth, even praise to our God." The saints must learn it 
on earth, if they are to sing it in heaven. We live and 



29 

walk in the midst of harmonics, and we must strive to bring 
ourselves into accordance with them : as the Stoics sternly 
expressed it, " living according to nature," according to the 
eternal Fatum, or word spoken by the all wise God ; or as 
the scriptures would have us, living and breathing in love. 
All the lessons of Providence, all the trials we come through, 
are so ordered as to foster this spirit, and to bring our minds 
into accordance with the mind and will of God. In the 
concert in the temple above are many toned voices, each 
singing in its own way but all in unison. The plaintive 
notes show that there are souls there which have been sorely 
wounded in the battle ; the more triumphant show that they 
have gained the victory. The song is sung in broken tones 
on earth, it is sung in exultant strains in heaven. Nor do 
the saints become weary in this service. Their hearts are 
in unison with their song, and as they behold more of God 
and of the Lamb they find new themes of praise, new mat- 
ter for wonder and for thankfulness. 

I believe that in their resurrection bodies, the saints 
will be literally" engaged iu singing the song of Moses and 
the Lamb. But we may understand t h language in a wider 
sense. It may be regarded as pointing to a music in the 
soul, to a harmony in the thoughts, the words and the em- 
ployments. Every being in glory will be engaged in a work 
suited to his gifts, his tastes and attainments. Here a 
seraph, which signifies fire, will be engaged in a work of 
perfect love ; here a cherub, which signifies mind, will be 
absorbed in a work of perfect intellect. " It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be;" but this I believe, that every 
faculty, every acquisition gained at school or college, or in 
the training of Providence, will be employed — not idle or 
running waste, but employed in the service of God : — of a 
wise God, who will allot to every one his suitable work, the 
work for which he is fitted, for which indeed he has been 



30 

prepared, by his original talents, his acquired accomplish- 
ments, and all the training through which he has been put 
in life and at death; of a good God, who employs his crea- 
tures in doing good, and makes them happy in the doing of 
it, so that all their work is doubly blessed, blessed to the 
doer and blessed also to those for whom it is done. 




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